I hope we're meant to be bothered by the shooting scene in W. Right now, I'm seeing it as proof of KC's transition from flat manhwa persona to real, complex, troubled person. YJ says he won't shoot, because she knows him as the fictional "good guy," but he's already become something beyond that, ever since Han Bridge. He declares she still "doesn't know things," and shoots. With this act, KC learns about YJ's nature, but we viewers learn even more about his. Do I give the show 2 much credit? lol
I really hope it was meant to be disturbing, too. That it was meant to be just as not okay as it felt to watch. They definitely framed the scene as dangerous and upsetting. A subversion of what YJ and we as the audience believed about KC until that point.
Real quick, weird aside about the gun play in this show: being an american who lives in the rural Western states, I readily admit, the absolute flaunting of any kind of gun safety in that scene distracted me really badly. I’ve never even held a loaded gun, but I know more than KC does. You don’t just point a gun at people! Even if it’s not loaded! You certainly don’t point it at yourself or scratch your head with it, you idiot. You’re supposedly an Olympic level marksman and you don’t know basic gun safety? WTH?
So that might have been part of the reason I was so uncomfortable watching that entire scene, not just the part where he threatened and then shot her.
I want to believe that they’re intentionally making KC seem shallow and unfeeling, because they want to develop him into a “real” person. If that is the case, I will be able to forgive this scene for the most part. There will be a couple other criteria the writer will have to meet for me to get over it entirely, though.
1) KC needs to realize the severity of the wrong he did YJ, not just by shooting her but throughout the entire kidnapping. He needs to realize how scared and traumatized she must have been and sincerely ask for her forgiveness. His “apology” after the incident didn’t cut it, in my mind. I’m hoping that the more human he gets, the more he will appreciate the amazing woman YJ is, and how incredibly undeserved her protection and concern for his well being.
2) I’m still waiting for the explanation for why he seemed to think it was okay to shoot her in the first place. Even if he was convinced at that point that she was from a different dimension, shooting someone through the chest just because you’re pretty sure that it’s not going to hurt them, is totally unacceptable. He said there was a reason, but he hasn’t been forthcoming. So get on with it, KC, explain thyself.
3) There needs to be a serious reversal of fortunes at some point. The preview for episode 5 indicates that there will be. In fact, based on the preview, his existential break down is going to be every bit as extreme and painful as I could possible have hoped (what a sadist I am…) but that needs to extend to the relative power imbalance of the main characters. The fact that he has shot her and held her against her will, and she still is vulnerable to his flirting, her heart is still fluttering at his hollow comeons, is really bothering me. I want him to be dependent on her in proportion to how much she was previously in his power.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing to expect a lot of this show or hold it to a high standard. It certainly has set the bar very high for itself in the first couple of episodes, and I am hoping desperately that it will maintain the same quality throughout. There is a thoughtful hand behind the plot and character development so far. Whether it is as thoughtful as what some of the fans have put forward, remains to be seen.
What you said above, “With this act, KC learns about YJ’s nature, but we viewers learn even more about his.” rings true to me. While the fact that he is capable of shooting her is problematic, in terms of the loveline, if the writer’s view of the character is as complex as what we now theorize, it could have been a very good character development move.
Here’s what I mean by that:
The thing that happened to KC on the Han River Bridge, which made YJ’s father begin to suspect he had created a monster, is he developed a free will. Something, apparently, none of the other characters in his world have (yet?) His free will is what he can thank for his being alive and in the real world right now. His free will is also what allowed him to shoot YJ despite it being “out of character” from her fan perspective. But was it out of character? For the KC of W the webcomic, certainly it seemed to be. Even the other characters reacted as though it was strange and frightening. But for the KC of W the show, it might not be as out of character as we’ve been led to believe.
While the idea that KC is a monster in the eyes of his creator seems very sensational and not to be taken seriously from the viewer’s standpoint (we are supposed to be rooting for KC and YJ to get together at some point and have a happy ending, after all, this is till a Kdrama) maybe it’s not quite as much of an overreaction based on too little information as what we initially thought.
Does the fact that YJ’s father thinks KC is monstrous make him monstrous in some way? He is KC’s creator, and clearly KC isn’t entirely autonomous. When he went out on the roof, even though the series of decision that he made was unusual for him and put him stupidly in danger, KC wasn’t able to resist making those decisions and the only way he survived was by pulling YJ into the comic itself to save him. Literally, he had to magically manufacture a deus ex machina for himself, in order avoid his ordained end.
What kind of nature does he have outside of his creator’s control? How much give and take is there between character and author? How much will KC change now that he knows about his true nature and has entered in the real world?
I would be very interested to see the answers to these questions as the show goes on. I would especially like to see an exploration of KC’s capacity for evil, his moral grayness. Within the confines of his story he is the quintessential good guy but outside of the script YJ’s father provides him, is he more good or evil? Is his ability to choose between good and evil what makes him human in the first place?
Hmmm, I foresee many a sleepless night of composing meta commentary in my future. I pray this one doesn’t disappoint me and gives me plenty to think and write about. Hopefully that addressed some of what you were getting at in a round about way. Thank you for the ask!
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